A year ago today, my friend Jamie shared the following post:
ABANDONED PROPERTY ADVENTURE: We explored the abandoned Sleighton Farm School, which was a reformatory school for girls in Glen Mills.
Originally the Philadelphia House of Refuge, founded in 1826–kind of a reform school. Children at the school, which was first coeducational, had lessons and worked the farm. Eventually this became a girls school.
The school has been closed since 2001 and the buildings are in disrepair. Many of these are old dorms, which they called “cottages”—a misnomer, because many of these buildings are large.
The cottages were designed by Cope and Stewardson (1885-1812), a Philadelphia architectural firm that created many major additions to college campuses, including the Quad at Penn and many buildings at Bryn Mawr College. (Oakwell connection: They were buddies with architect Frank Miles Day, architect of Oakwell structures, and collaborated with him when he designed the Penn Museum).
There is a chapel which was built in the 1960s. A few months ago, one of the cottages burned down in an arson.
Eventually, this property will be demolished. Its fate is up in the air. I fervently hope it doesn’t become something like “The Estates at Sleighton Farm School by [XYZ developer].”
So in a sense this is like a sister school to that horrible Glen Mills School. And I feel almost compelled to go down the rabbit hole of this Sleighton Farm School after looking at a couple of other oddly related things…..
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services has reached a settlement agreement with the Clock Tower Schools, clearing the way for the entity to operate at the site of the former Glen Mills Schools….DHS has granted the Clock Tower Schools a provisional two-year license to operate its residential and day treatment programs. The state is also mandating the Clock Tower Schools pay for an independent monitor, Justice By Design.
Yes, I did a little segue here to the old Glenn Mills school now known as something like Clock Tower. But back to Sleighton. And another interesting segue.
Sleighton has a weird connection because of architects’ connection to another cool old house I recently discovered because of the people restoring it putting it on Instagram. It’s called (or was called) Binderton and it’s in Chestnut Hill.
Binderton was built between 1903 and 1906 by Cope & Stewardson Architects. Like Sleighton School. Now I know this is a total tangent, but this house in Chestnut Hill is so cool. It also posts gardens that were designed by the Olmsted Brothers, which in turn ties it also to Stoneleigh and Oakwell. Cool, right?
So yes …..Sleighton….in 2021 the place was being discussed in conjunction with a plan for like 193 townhouses. And remember the property is part Edgemont, part Middletown.
Recently an article about a novelist taking inspiration for her book from Glen Mills/Clock Tower and Sleighton seems to lead me to believe they haven’t started anything much at Sleighton yet?
Now this property seems to be originally about 300 acres? The Sleighton Farm property was originally given to Henry Sleighton by William Penn. So it was also a Penn Land Grant? Newspaper archives have tons of articles about Sleighton ranging from problems, fights, fairs, and astounding amounts of money they got from the county and state.
It’s kind of crazy how much money these institutions used to get right? On July 15, 1957, the Delaware County Daily Times reported that Sleighton was getting $765,000 and Glen Mills School got $770,000! Think of what that would equate to in today’s dollars, right?
In 1970 from the same paper in 1970 I found a notice of an auction of “surplus goods.”
They had fairs, plants sales, and more. In 1974 they had the now deceased Judge Lisa Richette as a speaker and advertised for a farmer.
Like a decade or so ago there was a website post about a “school fixer upper.”
A multi alarm fire at Sleighton according to the Delco Times in June, 2024:
An incendiary fire at the long abandoned Sleighton Farm School for Girls in the 400 block of Valley Road in Middletown and Edgmont townships kept county firefighters busy Sunday night into early Monday…Edgmont Township Fire Marshal Al Mancill said the first call came in at 10:14 p.m. from a neighbor on Forrest Lane who saw flames. Firefighters arrived and found a 100-year-old abandoned dorm on fire and called for additional assistance.
It eventually went to two or more alarms, he said….Nobody was injured in the blaze, which took 90 minutes to control….
There have been numerous large fires over the years at the property, which has been closed for over 20 years.
Elwyn, which now owns the property, has a security patrol, with those members and state police patrolling the property and often making arrests, Mancill said.
Ok that is interesting right? And there were other articles from another fire on the Sleighton property in 2102 which said it was possibly due to a lightening strike…as in a storm.
A public notice posted in Monday’s Daily Times has drawn a rebuttal from Middletown Township.
Middletown Township is disputing a public notice Elwyn of Pennsylvania and Delaware and Rocky Run Development LLC published saying that a tentative plan for a proposed planned residential development submitted to the township in September 2021 has been deemed approved…..
Back to June 2024. Pennsylvania State Police Investigators deemed the fire arson after an investigation. At that time anyone who knew anything was asked to contact Pennsylvania State Police Master Trooper John Stewart at 610-558-7085.
The Abandoned Online post has interesting history on the place. So however many acres are left is owned by Elwyn and they say that was a result of Elwyn merging with Sleighton:
The Sleighton Farm School began as the House of Refuge in Philadelphia in 1826. 1 4 It was founded by the Quakers, with assistance from the Pennsylvania Prison Society, on the basis that juvenile offenders should be treated differently than adults…Male offenders were moved to Glen Mills in Delaware County to the newly formed Glen Mills School in 1889, while the female offenders remained at the House of Refuge. 1
The House of Refuge sought land in the rural Delaware County countryside in 1906 in a shift of curriculum. 1 14 The reformatory school found the belief that students would be better served in a setting that emulated a large family, where the therapeutic power of growing things on a working farm would be better than keeping them in the inner-city hardscape……On April 17, 1931, the school split into two, one for boys and one for girls. The boys’ school kept the Glen Mills name while the girls’ school became known as the Sleighton Farm School for Girls. 1 4 12 By 1949, Sleighton had grown to 350 acres, housing 350 to 360 females. 4…..In 1993, the Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board purchased the easement to 120 acres owned by Sleighton for $1.62 million. 5 The easement purchase program, introduced in 1989, was designed to protect prime farmland from being developed by selling development rights to the state.
Sleighton merged with Elwyn in February 1998.
And there’s a lot more in that post so people should read it. It’s very interesting. But it’s very convoluted and confusing as to what is actually going on there. The only thing I seem to be able to find is that there is security on the site and I guess walking trails aren’t really open to the public?
I found something on social media from this year. That includes photos from I guess some kind of a firefighter who was on site for some kind of training exercise.
So what happens now? Who knows? Time will tell. As of June 4th unless I am reading this wrong the Justia site says “AND NOW, this 4th day of June, 2025,Elwyn of Pennsylvania and Delaware d/b/a Elwyn and Rocky Run Development, LLC’s appeal is quashed.”
So it seems there is an actual park area that is public, and where the buildings are rotting is private? But I am not sure? I am not going there, but it is an urban explorer favorite apparently, and again, who knows what happens now?
And the headlines are pouring in. It’s official: Villanova University was “swatted.”
What does that mean? That means false reports were called in causing all of this activity. As per NBC 10 and 6 ABC the two channels I was watching, the call came into the 911 Call Center in Delaware County.
But what I am learning from people who live in close enough proximity to Villanova that they should’ve been the alerted the same time as the on campus population , yet they say that was not necessarily so?
I have spoken to some neighbors down there and I was told basically they found out after everyone else and they’re not happy. It’s not easy being a neighbor of that school. I don’t know how much of a delay there was, or if it’s more a misperception than fact, but it needs to be addressed publicly and rather soon.
Villanova has a security model where they have their own police force and there was quite the contretemps over that. I think it was about 2016. Police Superintendent at that point was Bill Colarulo and he didn’t think it was a good idea. And residents definitely weren’t happy.
Neighbors are not happy. Did not receive alerts. I heard the news from another friend.
Wonder if Stoneleigh was alerted and the houses on and off County Line Road?
So apparently, when I asked kind of how long it was, I was told:
After the fact and an hour late.
Ouch. Residents and taxpayers of Radnor also asking how much this cost Radnor Township today. I don’t know that they’ll ever get the true numbers but is it safe to say at least $50,000 if not more? I mean it was a massive response from multiple municipalities not just in Delaware County, but all over.
This is not Radnor’s fault this happened. But if it ends up, there was a delay between Villanova University, and any kind of notifications to the public, who obviously are close by, that’s a problem. People have already been concerned over the years of how Villanova has handled sexual assaults and other things, haven’t they? Please, by all means correct me if I’m wrong.
Right now all I have are questions, and so do neighbors closest to the school. Far too many people are being left with an uneasy feeling after this exercise today that wasn’t an exercise, or reality, it was in fact a hoax.
I’m hoping that Radnor, Villanova University, and the district attorney of Delaware County and other agencies will address this so if this is a misperception, it is cleared up immediately.
Now let’s talk about who did this. I think they will find whoever it is. It might take time because the call came into a call center. And once you sift through that information, law-enforcement will next have to go to phone providers and that requires paperwork and fees and like a subpoena or something. You see telecommunications companies tell you they cooperate with law-enforcement, but basically they cooperate for a price. I actually know this personally.
People think those calls are anonymous, but actually they aren’t. And people do get caught and charged. And when they get caught here, it won’t be some minor in fraction, I think something like this probably rises to the category of terroristic threats, or something.
I don’t know what the motivation would be for someone to do this other than to freak out and immediate community, a university campus, and tons of parents dropping their kids off for their first year of college. It’s not funny.
I think the police did an amazing job. I think Villanova got to stress test their plans, and that’s a hard situation. You have people getting these alerts on campus they’re outside for a mass for the beginning of school and then all of a sudden people are running and chairs are getting knocked over. People could’ve gotten hurt any single way you slice this.
And when I think of the people, I know personally, who did not find out at first who had kids stuck in businesses up close to campus on Route 30, and people who are just trying to come home and people who were home, wondering if they were safe is simply not acceptable.
Governor Josh Shapiro stated that this act of swatting Villanova University on move in day was a cruel hoax, and he reminded everyone that this is actually an illegal act. He has instructed the Pennsylvania State Police to help in whatever way they can to find whoever it is who did this. he and other today also reported that what happened today regardless of whether it was real or a hoax was every parent’s nightmare.
If there’s anyone out there who knows who might have done this, they really need to go to law-enforcement. And I can’t help but wonder if every parent who dropped a kid off at that school today is not having a second thought or two, along with every parent everywhere that’s doing the same thing right now.
I am sharing this because I just got a call from a local farmer in Willistown who called the police about this guy who showed up while he was doing something and his farm hands had to deal with this guy.
Unfortunately, by the time the farmer knew this guy had been there, he was gone, but a police report was filed.
Apparently this guy showed up on some kind of a scooter or hoverboard thing to them. But the reality is he came uninvited down a driveway that is really long. A place that can’t be any more clear about having security and posted private property don’t trespass.
And when the guy was discovered, he was nosing around the cows on the farm.
He didn’t seem to get the concept of private property, which couldn’t be posted any clearer at the beginning of the really long driveway. This guy has also shown up at other people’s s properties in Willistown and several other municipalities in Delaware and Chester Counties.
And he got caught on ring camera in a video posted yesterday to NextDoor. I’m about to show where he’s not only knocked on the door. He seemed to be checking for spare keys.
Now this is a common enough occurrence in the summer months, these random people who just show up. Either they’re selling something or you just find them wandering around your property. We had it in my neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods with the random driveway resealing guy who ignores no trespassing signs and every year acts like you didn’t tell him the year before to get off your property.
But this guy seems to be off from the way people describe him and also seems to be looking for spare keys. So that somebody who’s trying to figure out when people are on and off of their own properties and in and out of their houses. opportunistic? Definitely and for what reason? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to find out.
People are calling the police about this individual, which is not wrong, what he’s doing is wrong.
Before I moved to Chester County many years ago now, I lived in Lower Merion Township. I was in the Haverford neighborhood sandwiched between Montgomery and Lancaster Avenues near the Haverford School, which was across Lancaster Avenue as a matter of fact, it had a nickname called “the island.”
This wasn’t the north side (as in other side of Montgomery Avenue or the Merion Cricket Club side) of Haverford neighborhood I grew up in that had then, and still has today insanely soaring real estate prices. This was just a pretty transitional neighborhood close to the Haverford train station, where you could easily walk to both Ardmore and Bryn Mawr.
The neighborhoods across Lancaster Ave from me were actually in Haverford Township. That used to confuse people to think Haverford Township came to there, but it did and it still does. It’s a county and municipal line, and five points in Bryn Mawr is also two counties, but three municipalities.
One of the best things about my then neighborhood was you could walk a relatively short distance to get access to the Haverford Nature Trail. It was awesome. I used to walk myself and my dogs over there once, if not twice a day. When I first moved into the neighborhood, you had to move quickly but you could safely cross Lancaster Avenue via North Buck Lane (Lower Merion) on my side and Buck Lane (Haverford) on the other side. By 2007, it really wasn’t safe to do that. Traffic was bad but unwanted development was starting to march through, which would ultimately increase traffic in my opinion.
In 2007, we watched as lovely houses were torn down for McMansion-ish dwellings on Rugby Road in the Haverford Township side of Bryn Mawr. It was when many of us started talking about the need for the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of PA (MPC) to be comprehensively overhauled to help protect suburbs and exurbs.
The day after Christmas in 2008, or Boxing Day, my neighborhood watched as a developer tore down houses, including one of which was technically historical. It was initially for a condo building. Eventually it became “carriage homes” / townhouses. I will note that even today, the structures don’t truly fit into the neighborhood and in my opinion still complement nothing much. Oh, and they still overlook Classic Auto Body. I still can’t imagine paying Main Line prices to overlook a couple of body shops as there is still one I think across Lancaster Avenue from Classic Auto Body.
In 2007, the then editor of Main Line Media News who before his death was editor of The Daily Local penned an editorial that still resonates today about development:
Neighbors of these developments came together, organized, and attended so many meetings during the early to mid 2000s. In some ways it helped, but in other ways it was soul crushing to see development that had little to do with the area itself taking over and not necessarily being harmonious with the neighborhood invaded. In late 2007, I wrote an editorial for Main Line Media News celebrating these neighbors groups:
In case you missed it, this is why I get upset about a lot of the truly wanton development in Chester County. I lived it, in part, before. This is in part why I know in my heart Malvern Borough has made a mistake with that absurdly named Duffryn Mawr across King from the Flying Pig.
But I digress.
Why am I revisiting this? Because in my opinion, traffic issues we saw before the development projects I have mentioned in Bryn Mawr and Haverford even happened, have now morphed into a need for Haverford Township to rethink the configuration of what will always be small streets to protect the community and pedestrians.
I don’t pay close attention to Main Line and just off of the Main Line stuff like I used to, but this newsletter from 5th Ward Commissioner of Haverford Township Laura Cavendish:
The Board of Commissioners will hold its monthly public meeting on Monday, July 14. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few updates and reminders from around the Township.
Safe Streets Demonstration Project on Buck Lane
Within the next few weeks, Haverford Township will begin a Traffic Safety Demonstration Project on the 800 block of Buck Lane (between Railroad Avenue and Panmure Road), as part of the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program.
Key features include:
Converting Buck Lane to one-way northbound travel (Railroad to Panmure) to reduce southbound cut-through traffic and improve pedestrian and bike safety.
Reconfiguring the roadway for one lane of traffic, a buffer, and a protected multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists.
Temporarily eliminating on-street parking on the block during the project.
During peak times, 65–75 vehicles per hour will be rerouted, but traffic studies suggest minimal impact on surrounding roads. The Township is coordinating with local schools to adjust transportation routes.
A community feedback survey will be shared about three months after the project begins. You can find the Brynford Safe Streets Study here. For questions about this demonstration project, contact Jaime Jilozian at jjilozian@havtwp.org or 610-446-1000.
Here is the link to what she referred to on Haverford Township’s website:
It’s so weird to think that part of Buck Lane will be one way, but I applaud Haverford Township for seeking solutions. When we tried to get traffic calming in our Lower Merion neighborhood back in the late 90s to early 2000s before the development projects I have discussed here were begun, we only got so far and we got a municipal smack back.
The impetus was a hit and run of a neighborhood dog back then, and subsequent realization of how many little kids we had as well as pedestrians. We pushed for a traffic study and I believe that my then small street had a crazy number of something like over 1200 vehicle trips per day clocked.
Our neighborhood back then was a big cut through between Lancaster and Montgomery Avenues, and probably still is. We had neighborhood meetings called parlor meetings with township officials including the police in our living rooms. I remember this well, because I hosted the first meeting at that time in my own living room.
We looked at surrounding areas, and were particularly interested in something Radnor Township was doing back then: speed humps. As opposed to speed bumps. This was before 2006, but I don’t remember the exact date. It was before the current 10th Ward Lower Merion Commissioner in Lower Merion was elected. (He’s still there)
I remember speaking with traffic safety folks in Radnor to get speed hump information. They even gave me PennDOT information at that time.
But Lower Merion was having none of it. It got to the point where the Lower Merion Commissioners then introduced an ordinance to prohibit speed humps. They seemingly erased all evidence of this today because more recently they have selectively introduced speed humps in the township since that time. But I personally know that this happened as during the course of this all those years ago, I received a letter in the mail basically warning me off from asking for speed humps in my then neighborhood.
So because of all of this, I am glad Haverford Township is trying new traffic calming measures. But, this remains a cautionary tale in my opinion, of what happens when too much development comes to an area over time.
Take a look at what Haverford Township is trying to do here and I welcome comments from neighbors in the area if they read this post to learn their thoughts.
There is no way around how ugly this is. No way at all. Now, of course, those of us familiar with Lower Merion School District know that the Central Bucks Superintendent is Dr. Steven Yanni. Yanni was Superintendent in Lower Merion for a few months, never moved into the district and then was gone back to Bucks County (where he lived, so you know that was a heck of a commute to the Main Line every day.)
It was always my opinion that Yanni used getting the job in Lower Merion to get him back where he wanted to be, which was Buck County and of course now he’s on leave because of all of this so maybe that wasn’t the best decision?
Now, although not a fan of Yanni, I am less of a fan of the insanity that goes on in a lot of these Bucks County school districts, especially this one. Let us not forget things like Clarice Schillinger, founder of the Keeping Kids in School PAC, who recruited nearly 100 parents to run for school boards across Pennsylvania over masking/anti-vaxxing etc who also made national news as the Bucks County party mom who was accused of slugging a kid?
Bucks County is a total circus with their school districts, especially Central Bucks.
But what came out in this recent thing and this report that was filed that was so explosive to me demonstrates that there’s like this breakdown between school districts, the state including things like “Child Line”, and police departments.
It reminded me of something that happened in Chester County and that was the death of that poor girl, Malinda Hoagland. That made national news as well.
So these two cases this new one in Bucks County and this one from last year in Chester County, to me clearly illustrates that all these agencies that are supposed to be working together for the benefit of children are in fact not.
Let’s start with Child Line which has been a subject of scrutiny in the past. In 2023 there was a report put out about their registry by the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Temple Law School:
Now I think because of the problems experienced because of Child Line not l functioning properly, or perhaps functioning unfairly as these articles indicate, it also means that school districts are perhaps reluctant to go to the state and file with Child Line?
I know from what parents told me I guess it was a couple or a few years ago when there were issues at some local daycare places. Parents told me about their experiences calling Child Line among other things they basically felt like when they called in something they weren’t heard or taken seriously. Others have said to me it’s like calling any other thing in Harrisburg that’s supposed to help residents, it’s just a study in frustration.
Of course the greatest irony is because the federal government is monkey around so much with education and actually most probably wants to try to get rid of the Department of Education, these resources are needed more than ever.
I think there’s a lot of blame to go around. And then you look at the hierarchy and what not within each school district. Often teachers are afraid to step forward. They have to deal with their peers. They have to deal with their teachers union. They have to deal with the administration. It is my opinion that that’s why you didn’t see very much happen that should’ve happened with the whole scandal within the Great Valley School District of making hyper sexualized and horrible fake social media profiles of teachers within that district. That made the news and then it fizzled out and disappeared.
That issue shouldn’t have disappeared like that, but you know in order for law-enforcement to do anything teachers have to step forward and allow their names to be used, don’t they? The school district certainly didn’t want this blown up anymore in Great Valley. They wanted it to disappear.
And then there is the crap that all of the school districts have had to deal with since Covid. First there was masking an anti-vaxxing. Now it’s back to book banning. The latest was Radnor School District. And there we all saw a familiar face from the Great Valley School District book banning debacle that included litigation that cost the district and taxpayers quite a bit of coin, and the litigation went nowhere.
I’m pleased to report that Radnor school district is UN-banning the books it banned and I’ve posted the link to the meeting so you can hear how the parents, residents, and former attendees of various Radnor schools felt. You have to surf a little bit into the video, but it’s well worth listening to these people.
The school districts in Pennsylvania seem to deal with a continual circus. I think that’s fair to say. That makes it harder for them to do their jobs.
I also think that is fair to say I think there was an enormous breakdown in the Central Bucks School District, circling back to what I opened this post with, but they’re not the only district that suffers from these things. Now I think Superintendent Yanni will be the scapegoat here and the fall guy, especially because the Republicans in that area didn’t want him here in the first place, did they? But he’s not the only one that can take a lap or two for how that whole horrible scenario all happened at Jamison Elementary.
I have to be honest and say that I am not surprised that there are issues in any school district when it comes to special needs kids. There are the teachers and administrators and other personnel who really really care, and then there are the ones who don’t.
I have had many friends over the course of my life who have had kids with varying degrees of special needs in some very familiar school districts who ended up having to take their kids OUT of these public school districts, and in some cases, sue the district to get the kids into better programs elsewhere.
And then there are the parents who want school districts to deal with severe bullying issues, and things of that nature. And there’s a lot of double talk, but not a lot of action. And sometimes the bullying is not from the kids, it’s the adults, yes?
The circus of school districts needs to get back to the best interest of the child. Every time one of these horrible things happens school districts say they’re going to do better. Then the state will say it’s going to do better, and eventually it all goes back to the way it was doesn’t it? Actual change and reform need to happen.
And that includes a need for school districts to have effective mechanisms in place to deal with the parents that think that what they believe personally should be applied across the board to every parent with things like book banning. The dead baby poster toting book banning poster toting parents are taking up a lot of valuable time within our school districts. They seem to think that their rights matter more than everyone else’s. These circus routines distract from more important matters. You know things like child abuse. Or actual education.
And Harrisburg? Well, Harrisburg is its own cesspool, and this is a glaring example of what they need to actually do better as well.
And then all of these school districts and the state have to work better with law enforcement. it has to be a partnership for the betterment of the children, putting the egos and partisan politics aside.
OK, I’m getting off my soapbox now. But I just think there’s actual reform that needs to happen and it’s not just in one exceptionally problematic school district in Bucks County.
Sometimes when I have appointments down on the Main Line, I go back via Radnor Street Road to check on the Wayne Natatorium sign. The reason I do that is I actually do not trust Radnor Township to maintain it even though it’s a state historical marker. And I am the reason it’s there.
But as I was going through today, I noticed that the parking lot that is at the corner of Willow Avenue and Radnor Street Road for Cowan Field was magically FedEx parking.
Funny thing about that lot is it supposed to be permit parking only or if you’re using the park. I can tell you that there was no one in the park when I drove by.
So is FedEx renting parking spaces from Radnor Township? I didn’t see anything like hang tags that would make one think there’s a parking permit involved.
I did have a giggle over this because when I had come through Wayne earlier, I noticed the stealth parking enforcement fairies’ van roaming around so they could hand out tickets. I guess they don’t go all the way over into Little Chicago?
Of course, I also noticed there were plenty of cars parked around Little Chicago in places that aren’t actually legal.
But hey, that’s Radnor Township at its best: inconsistent.
Isn’t this part of Jack Larkin’s ward? He’s still the Ward 1 Commissioner, right?
Anyway, I hope these FedEx trucks have legal permits because otherwise it’s pretty crappy to get chased around by the parking enforcement fairies and there’s a double standard right?
So Savvy Main Line blew the lid off of Radnor Township School District and the book banning of it all. The complainant ONCE AGAIN was the SAME guy who tried before, only this time, Radnor’s current unimpressive Superintendent of Schools Ken Batchelor who has obviously forgotten all about the diverse communities he once served, and STILL serves, seems to be capitulating to this dude’s whims?
My opinion on Batchelor is overwhelmingly he needs to go.
What is this man who oops started this again really afraid of? Did Superintendent Ken Batchelor misplace his balls somewhere? Yes, I just did say this because libraries? Libraries are supposed to be a peaceful place. A refuge. A haven. A safe place. I was and still am a bookworm. I loved libraries as kid. It was a place to escape, to visit foreign lands, learn something new, develop your own intellectual curiosity.
A library (again) is supposed to be a safe space.
This same man who has been wreaking havoc in Radnor probably embarrasses his kids, but are they allowed to have their own opinions? So he can keep his own kids out of the library and away from certain books and I have to wonder if he knows what his own kids get up to on the internet, social media, at the mall, etc.? Probably not.
I think this Radnor secret committee is also BS. I hope more and more people jump on this and give the Radnor librarians and librarian everywhere facing these issues back their libraries. And if these committee members are so proud of what they have done, why don’t they stand up in public?
And for every book that is banned, people need to open little free libraries of banned books everywhere.
If you don’t want your kids to read something, that is your personal choice as a parent, except if you think your kids will just not check something out that you said no to like a simple book, were you ever a kid? For me it was Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, yet I think some of those novels like Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Tom Jones or Valley of the Dolls were a lot more racy.
To follow is the excellent Savvy reporting and Radnor School District won’t allow embedding of their videos so follow this link for the March 11, 2025 Policy Committee Meeting. I also dug up some old articles from when this guy started the witch hunts and book banning circus before.
Here’s hoping Radnor finds a new superintendent along with reversing this book ban. Parents need to parent in their own homes, not an entire school district. Would that this man who is at it again be so passionate about drugs, alcohol, and bullying. And well this angry dad could put his kids in Catholic school or a Christian school. But no, he wants Radnor taxpayers to pay for his phobias. Radnor taxpayers is that ok with you? It would not be ok with me.
Choice. Look it up, Mr. Phobic. Here’s hoping you allow your kids to have choices.
To say I am outraged is an understatement. We’re talking about books that no matter what you think about them aren’t being taught as part of curriculum, they are merely on shelves in a library. People can read them…or not.
Or they were.
So Radnor Township School District I have to ask are you going to brand your students who are different? are they going to be forced to wear special patches on their clothing? Does this remind you of 1930s Germany before World War II? It should this is how it starts.
Oh, and people are going to say I’m being overly dramatic. I am not. I am however, appalled.
It’s hard enough being a teenager without the extra pressure that parents who are uncomfortable with their own identity and sexuality foisted upon other people’s children. at the end of the day that is what this is about. This is about a minority of adult being uncomfortable.
Of course we could ask why are they so uncomfortable but they would be too uncomfortable, providing an honest answer, wouldn’t they?
I’m shocked that this has occurred.
I’m sad that this has occurred.
I’m appalled that this has occurred.
I’m sitting here remembering my high school days when I knew there were people who were struggling with just a simple fact of were they gay or straight. And what I remember from those days is for the most part other kids were accepting in a lot of cases. It was the adults who were not accepting. A lot of the kids who were uncomfortable with anyone else different from them I remember back then often had totally screwed up parents.
Now, as soon as this news broke, I went to some Radnor people I still know and asked them did they know this was happening? And I’m speaking about people with kids in the school district. They are shocked and outraged and flabbergasted, and before this hit the news, apparently all this past weekend there were all these little meetings with school board members scurrying and doing what can be described as damage control. (Note to school board: damage control is undoing this.)
In a district that doesn’t like to talk about issues like any drug/alcohol issues or bullying issues which are perennial everywhere, but they want to ban books.
They don’t want to talk about kids falling behind or talk about the ones who might not be safe at home, but they want to ban books.
This country has a sad flirtation with book banning beginning in 1637 in Quincy, Massachusetts. Censorship remained sporadic well into the late 19th century. Then as the 20th century dawned, book banning went whole hog in this country depending on where you were.
Statistically speaking, 3/4 of the books subject to book banning today are for children, preteens, and teens. But is it the kids who are upset or even reading the books? Seems to me it’s the parents with identity issues of their own they don’t want to deal with?
Because of things like the 1st amendment, the 14th amendment, and the 4th amendment we should have freedom to read in this country. But we don’t because you have these people whipped in a frenzy, vis-à-vis fake news on social media who have warped perspectives on obscenity and morals. Mind you some of the people who all of a sudden are book banners and born again Puritans and super faux Christians were not so innocent way back when and oh the irony, right? I mean, you haven’t lived until you’ve come face-to-face with a hypocritical, former dirty girl masquerading as super mom. Yes, oh the irony.
Radnor School District needs to be taken to court like yesterday over this. Parents need to take the gloves off and stand up and fight for the basic rights which are supposed to be exist in the public school system.
This is pure unmitigated bullshit.
Tell Radnor’s School Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Batchelor to rescind the madness:
Radnor parents, residents, and concerned citizens should be storming the proverbial Bastille over this. Protests, letters, packing meetings, speaking to media.
People if you’re not going to do it for your own children do it so future generations don’t have to feel like they are living in a prison when they are in school.
👉🏻If I lived in Radnor Township, I would put all of these books in every Little Free Library that sits on someone’s lawn anywhere. I would create Little Free Libraries just for these books.👈🏻
If parents don’t want their children to read certain books, that is up to them within their own household. They should not be able to decide for the rest of the population. And besides, especially when it comes to teenagers, do these parents remember being a teenager? For example when my mother said when I was in 7th grade that I couldn’t read Judy Blume books . So what did I do? I either bought copies and squirreled them away in the house in various hiding spots, or I borrowed them from friends. I read the books, and I lived and wasn’t scarred for life.
The point of education is not to stymie growth. The point of education is to teach and for kids to learn. What is the lesson being taught by Radnor Township School District? Quite frankly it is too ugly to contemplate.
Radnor’s School Board needs to find where they left their balls.
Screen shot from the Radnor Design Review Board Meeting February 12, 2025
There is that phrase something along the lines of it’s better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission. That seems to be the case with the Agnes Irwin School in Radnor Township perhaps? So how do you do lighting without a plan given to the township in which you sit? Would regular folk get away with this? Am I missing rarified air somewhere?
It’s a funny thing with that school. They occasionally seem to have this perennial misplaced sense of entitlement. And every time you hear news of them it’s because they are mentioned in someone’s obituary, or for some shenanigans having to do with grand plans. I will get to the grand plans of the past that didn’t go so well in a bit. But first this new or current kerfuffle over their lighting.
I am not minimizing what neighbors of Agnes Irwin are obviously experiencing given the Radnor Design Review meeting I saw. (Here is the link to the entire meeting.)
I was gob smacked. It was about lighting. As in Fred and Ginger can tap dance inside neighbors’ houses given the brightness of the lights. As in blackout curtains don’t help. As in how do migrating birds not get confused bright. As in the school is lucky there have not been car accidents in neighborhoods they abut or along S. Ithan Ave bright. Sorry not sorry, that is some kind of bull twaddle going on don’t you think? Why is this ok? Because they are a Main Line private school? Heck I went to one and that dog don’t hunt.
Excerpt from the Radnor Design Review Board Meeting 2/12/25
According to Ray Matus, former Radnor police officer who is their Director of Safety and Security it was for security measures. Ok but Mr. Matus? You worked at Radnor Township for years, and your dad and uncles did too, right? I get it that you were law enforcement (highway patrol, remember him directing traffic during Villanova stuff), but still, wouldn’t you think you might have to talk to someone other than your former police chief about putting up lighting even for safety?
But you know what? In my opinion the SCHOOL and their capital projects people and facilities or property manager types should definitely know better, and where were they at this meeting? Did they think their security guy as a former Radnor Township employee would just smooth it over? If so, then I am surprised Irwins didn’t have their Dean of Students Grades 5 and 6 Middle School Teacher lady there because isn’t her hubby in fact Radnor’s Township Manager? (Just saying?)
So Irwins has a pretty big footprint over there in Rosemont/Bryn Mawr but I am guessing they are a bit hemmed in? I mean they own that Almondbury House, at 672 Conestoga Rd, Villanova, built in 1911 by Horace Trumbauer. That is a fabulous house, they acquired it in 2015. It’s historic, don’t know what the plans for it are or what it is being used for, offices etc would be my guess. That property is about 6 acres I think, maybe 5. That might be what they refer to as “the annex” here and there?
They also own a house on this flag lot kind of driveway off of Conestoga. That was the house that they asked about in the meeting where they asked Mr. Matus where he lived. I am actually very familiar with the house, I was in it in high school. The family that sold the house had a daughter my year at dare I say it….Shipley. Agnes Irwin bought it from the family. They have owned the house for years at this point. That is very common with private schools and colleges to buy houses adjacent to campuses for staff or heads of school etc. to live in. That property adds a little over an acre to Irwins’ footprint. It’s a sweet house. I always liked it. It was up next to a tennis court in the back if I recall correctly.
The lights are daylight but it’s midnight bright right now according to neighbors at that meeting. I believe the neighbors and more than one spoke. Also important to note, since only one was alluded to by Irwins at meeting. The neighbors over there, aren’t happy and a lot of others have not been happy in the past. Just ask the folks who live on S. Ithan Avenue. Sometimes in the past, I have gone past the school and houses that are neighbors have orange cone things by their driveways. As a matter of fact I am incredulous that Irwins got so much on street parking on S. Ithan because it makes the road feel quite narrow.
Back to the lights. Just yesterday a friend of mine actually commented to me in a phone conversation how bright and glaring the lights of the school are at night when driving on S. Ithan. So I can well imagine what the people on Browning Lane, etc see. My friend who doesn’t live in Radnor, just on the Main Line, referred to the lights as glare bombs.
Lighting is a real issue and it is also an art form when it comes to doing it properly. That means you aren’t just plunking them up. There is a thought process and a plan, right? So why didn’t Irwins consult the neighbors before they did anything? Wouldn’t that have been the nice neighborly thing to do? I went to Shipley which has done tons of building over the years, and as critical as I can be even of my alma mater, I can’t recall their lighting being offensive (and I have criticized an expansion plan or two.) . I also remember them submitting lighting plans along with other plans to Lower Merion Township, so I don’t understand why Irwins didn’t until this meeting? Or did Irwins assume Radnor relationships would just make it all like magic? I guess they missed the memo where being a good neighbor makes magic?
Now let’s dish lighting and Radnor Township. Remember the issues surrounding Villanova University? I seem to recall that neighbors were very up in arms and that RADNOR TOWNSHIP hired a lighting expert to review and do light and sound measurements? Where was that? Aldwyn Lane and elsewhere around, right? I remember this issue coming up more than once with their expansions. And Villanova as a result has lights that are not bright white glare bombs. They just like lots of crosses, right? Here I looked up some old articles concerning Villanova and lighting, most without pay walls:
Agnes Irwin seems to constantly lead with a bit of an elitist attitude in my humble opinion. The fact that this ended up in a Radnor meeting says to me that perhaps neighbors either weren’t being heard or the school didn’t care about what they were hearing from their neighbors? And does that even compute with what the school claims as their values? I think that is truly sad.
Where does being respectful of your neighbors fall in core values?
The neighbors need to start taking MORE photos. Of lights, traffic, the whole enchilada. Radnor Township needs to step up and get an independent lighting expert etc in this just like they did with Villanova. They can’t ignore residents with real property value worries and environmental and just every day living concerns over a private school. They didn’t ignore it with lighting issues with Villanova and it’s the same damn area. They need a proper lighting plan at Agnes Irwin. They need LOWER lights as in height, as well as different kinds of lights shielded properly (not bright glare bomb white how about a more yellow cast) that lights an area safely without making 3 AM seem like high NOON. What are those magic words? Lumens and foot candles? Again, proper downlighting? Not loving hands at home light shields perhaps? (Duh.)
How many lights do they need on things like the tennis courts which are surrounded by giant fences and are locked up tighter than Fort Knox. (It’s funny, when I was growing up ) remember the school letting some of the courts get used by folks in the area.)
Other suggestions? Proper fencing along perimeters and evergreen screening. Evergreen screening helps with light pollution. Light pollution is real and Agnes Irwin and Radnor Township can’t ignore it. For God’s sake, I bet science teachers there must talk about migrating birds and nature at some point, right? I remember it in elementary school/lower school years myself. Anyway umm hello, what does light pollution do to migrating birds?
No one objects to good security, it benefits a school campus and the surrounding area. But what is done shouldn’t ever be at the expense of neighbors.
Agnes Irwin needs to stop the BS. Especially since also at that meeting there was some mention of a potential turf field in their future? Haven’t they learned from turf fields yet? And this one to be would be where? There is a big grassy field near Browning Lane I think? Doesn’t that run to a creek and is it even big/wide/long enough? I am asking the question because I don’t know, I just have a memory of that field, and others over there from high school. And turf fields all require constant monetization to have any semblance of economic feasibility in addition to all the environmental issues, correct? They are super expensive, right? I also remember seeing a new thing on turf fields where they showed an old turf field graveyard. That stuff is not found in nature and does not break down. Besides, how many turf fields do we need in any area?
And there has been a LOT of negative press in the past over Irwins and fields/turf fields. As a matter of fact, some one I know owns the property on Sugartown Road in Easttown they once wanted to get part of for fields. And then there was the whole giant thing about them leasing Radnor Township owned fields in some park.
Agnes Irwin needs a refresher course in being community minded and a good neighbor. There is something to be said for good community relations. Enough with the misplaced sense of entitlement of it all. And yes I can have these opinions. And anyone who knows me will know my not liking issues with lights, turf fields, etc with regard to academic institutions is nothing new. And academic institutions with neighbor relations issues is also a particular pet peeve.
And a not so subtle love tap to the invisible interim commissioner in Ward 4 in Radnor. So Jim Reilley if you wanted to be a commissioner, dude then be one. It means being present in your ward. You are freaking INVISIBLE . For residents he is supposed to serve he has a page on Radnor’s exceptionally clunky website. I will also note he lives literally in that affected neighborhood. (So unless he exists under a rock he can’t deny this issue exists.)
Here is refreshing all of your memories on Agnes Irwin and their other community kerfuffles past:
First, we had the issues with Republic and then they just dumped everyone in our area as trash customers.
Then we had AJ Blosenski, who was good until they weren’t, and then they really sucked.
Both of these companies had no art of customer service. You can’t get people on the phone. They don’t call you back you don’t matter. they are all about collecting the money, but there’s nothing in between.
Ever since we signed up with them, it’s been easy. And it’s been well over a year at this point because we switched to them probably the middle of 2023. They show up when they’re supposed to. You can always get someone as in a real human being on the phone and they’re happy to talk to you and if for some reason you get voicemail, they call you back and it’s generally the same day.
This week was the first time they didn’t come. And it was because of the snowstorm on Monday. I wasn’t particularly perturbed. I didn’t expect them to show up. They put out a notification and said they would be in touch with people about when they’re trash day would be rescheduled to.
But the difference between them and everybody else that’s out there is we got a personal phone call to tell us that our trash was being picked up tomorrow.
A customer service outgoing phone call from a really nice lady who apologized profusely for not being able to get there because of the snow and they want customers to know when they were getting their pick ups and not just put out something on social media or email.
I’m nobody special. I’m just your average customer.
Real customer service is so rare these days that I wanted to take just a minute to point this out.
